Water ski harness



Aug. 25', 1959 Filed Feb. 24, 1955 s. HEDL,U ND ET AL 2,900,648

WATER SKI HARNESS 2 Sheets-She et l By G/enn L. Heezi' QQQWKLQEQ 0912 0101 eye.

Aug. 25, 1959 S. HEDLUND ET AL WATER SKI HARNESS Filed Feb. 24, 1955 INVENTORS 514/017 Her/land.

3E Glen/1 L, Reed.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent WATER SKI HARNESS.

Swan Hedlund and Glenn Leslie Reed, Nokomis, Ill. Application February 24, 1955, Serial No. 490,256

1 Claim. (Cl. 9-21) This invention relates to a foot binding or harness. for water skis, and more particularly to a harness or binding that is readily detachable and removable from a water ski.

Water skis, as heretofore made, are provided with a permanent or semi-permanent foot binding or harness. Bindings and harnesses of known type, when removed from the ski, are usually dismantled and in most instances destroyed or damaged, and in case of re-use on the same or other skis, must be reassembled, repaired and adjusted to the feet of the user.

There is in use today many different types and models of water skis such as the outboard, shorty, stepper, turnaround, slalom, racer etc., all of which are designed for a specific type of water skiing and each of which provide a more varied sport which allows the user to have the full enjoyment and thrill of many varied maneuvers during the rides. An enthusiast of the sport of water skiing will own several difierent models of skis which are used for specific types of skiing and it is of advantage to have a single set of foot harness or binding which can be easily and rapidly secured to any of the difierent skis. Further, it is considerably more economical to own a plurality of different type skis with no harness permanently attached thereto and a single set of harness or binding which is adapted to be easily secured to a pair of the skis depending upon the desire of the user than to have a plurality of skiis each of which have a set of harness or bindings permanently mounted thereon.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to pro: vide a removable binding which may be easily and rapidly attached to and removed from water skis.

Another object of this invention is to provide a unitary water ski binding which is readily detachable and transferable from one ski to another.

An additional object is to provide a water ski binding which is transferable from one ski to another without loss of any adjustments which may have been made to suit the user thereof.

These and other objects will appear in the following specification which taken with the accompanying drawing comprises a complete disclosure of this invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of my novel binding or harness attachment showing the means for removably mounting same on a ski;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken substantially on the, line 2-2 of Fig. 1 showing the counter portion in the adjustable extended position in dotted line;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view showing the counter in the adjustable extended position;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the heel or counter portion similar to that of Fig. 3 showing the counter in the ad justable retracted position; and

Fig. 6 is a partial cross-sectional view taken along the line 66 of Fig. 3.

Attention is now directed to the drawing wherein like characters of reference indicate like elements in the sev-; eral figures illustrated therein. 7

A portion of a water ski 10 has securely but removably mounted thereto our novel unitary water ski binding or harness attachment, generally indicated as 12. The novelattachment of the harness 12 to the ski 10 includessa generally rectangular base member 14 adapted to be mounted on the ski 10 by means of front 16 andrear 16 screw or bolt means passing through aligned open-t ings 18 in the ski 10 and 18' in the base member l4 and having front 20 and rear 20' nuts and washers 22 and 22' respectively carried thereon. i

There is mounted on the base member 14a vamp, member 24 and a heel or counter member 26. The vamp member 24 has the lower peripheral portion thereof turned outwardly and is securely fastened to the, base member 14 by a pair of clamping plate means 28 and; screws 30, here shown as having acorn nuts 32 thereon. Ihe heel or counter member 26 has the lower peripheral, portion thereof turned outwardly and is securely mount ed on an adjustable, generally rectangular heel or counter plate 34 by a curved U-shaped clamping plate means 36 held against the lower peripheral part of the counter 26 by means of screws 38, note Fig. 4, having acorn nuts 40 thereon. The vamp and heel or counter members may be formed from any flexible, rubber-like material or other suitable materials having proper elastomeric properties.

A pair of guide lugs 42 are integral with and struck up from the base member 14 and embrace opposite longitudinal edges of the heel or counter plate 34 with suflicient friction to hold it in adjustment during handling. The counter plate 34 is provided with an elongated, openended, longitudinally extending slot 44 at the rear thereof through which the rear screw 16 passes, whereby counter plate 34 can be locked in adjusted position when the unitary ski binding attachment is mounted on a ski. The longitudinal adjustability of the counter section with respect to the vamp member is shown in Fig. 2 in dotted lines, and in Figs. 3 and 5 by comparing the relative positions of the parts illustrated therein. By removing nuts 20 and 20', the whole unitary assembly of my novel Water ski binding or harness 12 attachment may be easily removed from one ski and quickly transferred to and secured on another ski without loss of adjustment of the counter member 26 with respect to the vamp member 24.

A pad of sponge rubber or other suitable material 46 is attached to the heel or counter plate 34 providing a cushion for the users heel.

In use, the binding is adjusted to suit the users foot by means of the adjustable counter plate 34 and rear screw 16' and rear nut 20'. If it be desired to remove the water ski harness or binding attachment 12 for storage or, perhaps, to transfer it to another ski, it is necessary only to remove the nuts 20 and 20' and lift the base member 14 from the ski 10. There is no disassembly of the parts of the binding in removing it nor is re-assembly necessary in placing it on another ski or again on the same ski since all of the respective elements of the unitary ski binding are secured together. A user may have several pairs of skis, but need have only one pair of our novel water ski harness or binding attachment which is suited to his own feet.

Having thus described the invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

We claim:

A water ski harness for removable interchangeable mounting on a water ski, said harness comprising an elongated generally rectangular base member having a circular opening in each end portion thereof, said openings being disposed along the longitudinal axis of the base vamp member, clamping plate. meansattachihg'flie vamp memher'adjacent the peripheral edge thereof to one endportionof said base' member, said vamp member and one end portion ofv the base member defining a foot receiving binder, a generallyrectangular counter plateadjustabl'ymountedon' the other end portion of: said base memberfor relative adjustable longitudinal movement in relation to said vamp member, acouhtermemher, a second-clampingplate means'attaching saidicounter member adjacent the peripheral edge thereof to one end portion of said counter plate in overlying: relation thereto with a'portion of thecounter plate extending below the counter member and defining therewith a heel receiving binder, saidcounter plate having a longitudinally extending open-ended slot in the other end portion thereof that is disposed 'in longitudinal alignment with the circular opening in the-other end portionof the base member, a

cushion secured to that portion of the counter plate which extends below the'countenmember, means releasably retaining the heel receiving binder ina desired longitudinall'y adjustedpositi'on to said foot receiving binder, said means including guide lugs on saidbase member engaging opposed longitudinal side edge portions of the counter plate, said guide lugs being elongated" integral portions of said base member extending generally upwardly there- 25 fronrwith the end portions thereof projecting generally '4 laterally inwardly and disposedin a plane substantially parallel to the base member with the end portions of the guide lugs frictionally engaging the respective longitudinal side edge portions of the counter plate with suflicient force to maintain the heel receiving binder in such desired selected adjusted position while removing and interchange ably mounting the Water ski harness on a selected ski, and attaching and securing means for removably interchangeably mounting thewaterski harness to a selected ski, said attaching and. securing means comprising elongated threaded bolt and nut means passing through the circular openingsiin the'ba'se member and-the longitudinal open-ended slot in the counter plate.

ReferencesCiterL in; the file. of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,043,883 Vogel Nov. 12, 1912 2,165,547 Hill July 11, 1939 2,327,783 Hains Aug. 24, 1943 2,445,610 Drake -h Iuly 20, 1948 2,540,576 Goodhue Feb. 6, 1951, 2,664,578 Clinedinst Jan. 5,.1-954 FOREIGN PATENTS 484,038 Canada June. 17; 1952 

